The Doors - Music Video - L.A. Woman 1971 HQ
Which is not to say that things always went smoothly during the recording of the LP, which would be titled L.A. Woman and released April 19, 1971. In fact, before they even really got started, the band had to deal with the abrupt departure of longtime producer Paul Rothchild, who ended an early listening session by insulting the Doors' musical direction and walking out.
The Doors - Music Video - L.A. Woman 1971 | HQ
In 1985, fourteen years after Morrison's death, Ray Manzarek directed,[4] and Rick Schmidlin produced a music video for the song. It was aired on MTV and included in the Doors film Dance on Fire.[5]
As Carole King's Tapestry turns 50, Graeme Ross remembers David Hepworth's case for 1971 being the greatest year for rock music. He counts down 20 of the year's best albums that could very well prove that claim
The album opens with "Changeling", the song that is lovely and silly in the sametime; the main bass sequence is very similar to Lipstick's "Funkytown", but this oneis much more serious, and, thanks goodness, much less annoying. There are some veryweird organ sounds here. Chorus is excellent, with simple drum-driven rhythm."Love Her Madly" is O.K. rock song with good lyrics (hmm, is this redundant to say?),but apart from that, nothing special, nothing demanding."Been Down So Long", "Cars Hiss By My Window" and "Crawling King Snake" are threeblues-pieces included on the album, "Been Down So Long" being the best of them simplybecause the groove. "Cars Hiss By My Window" sound undeveloped, but it's utilisingJim's vocal interpretations of high-pitched electric guitar, but it ends almostabruptly, with three jazzy chords. "Crawling King Snake" is just slow and boringblues number, showing us Morrison's obsessions with reptiles and amphibians again."L.A. Woman" was never very appealing to me, although it's undoubtedly proto-prog.Few nice guitar and keyboard parts here and there, but that's about it. "L' America" is a masterpiece itself. Excellent, scary, ultra psychedelic, military,flamenco, whatever - in one word - good tune. Breathtaking atmosphere, and the sametrick used in the "Riders On The Storm" - Manzarek's emphasizing of Morrison's lyricsusing his electric piano to describe the drops of rain."The Wasp" is a typical doors-like lyrical bravurosity surrounded by a great tunewith excellent parts played on organ. "Riders On The Storm" is a timeless masterpiece, and it doesn't need to be introduceto a wider audience. I'm just curious to know were there any previous attempts by anyrock band to combine sounds of nature (rain) through the whole song?In conclusion, there are only two average and one bad numbers to distant this recordfrom the masterpiece status. The rest of the tracks are clever, good-produced,good-played songs with a palette of different styles, perhaps a palette not wide aswe used to concern in the prog music, but it's diversity nonetheless. A well-deservedfour stars. Right, from the prog rock point of view. social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Friday, January 5, 2007 Review this album Report (Review #106061)
Hell yeah, The Doors are (were) back!But sadly it was the last album of the band as a 4-piece band, you know why...The fact is, that after several things that happened to their recent past (1969 -1970), Jim Morrison and The Doors made an extraordinary "comeback", 4 years had passed since their first two and best albums then, 4 years after their best and more successful moments, musically talking, 2 years after their probably decadence (The Soft Parade and Morrison Hotel) which are not bad albums but clearly showed less quality in every way.So there was 1971, a different Jim? maybe, you can notice it looking at the cover art, he has beard now! and he is also fat, something happened within their souls and it was a change, but this time, a kick asses change.L.A. Woman is the name of the album that marked the end of an era, (obviously they didn`t know it) and every fan could wonder what would have happened if they were released more albums?, that question could live in every fan`s mind, but i, as a fan, am happy because this was an excellent end (musically talking) and it`s great to remember a band that finished their era with such a wonderful album.This time they returned to their powerful sound, to the creation of memorable and very well composed songs, and to the time when they were just Gods of the rock scene.10 songs are placed here, can you recognize the name of Love Her Madly, or Riders on the Storm??, both songs are just a little proff of this excellent record."Changeling" is an obscure and freaky song , which was perfectly set as the opener, this sole song could give you an advice, warning, this album is great!!, the bass lines here are great."Love her Madly", this song is very popular here in Mexico, and surely it was a main hit in their decade, actually it is not their best, but it is great, everyone could love this."Been Down So Long" and "The Carr Hiss by my Window" are probably the weaker songs here, personally they are the ones which i less enjoy, being the first one a rockier theme with a nice slide guitar and a strong Jim`s voice, in the other hand, Car His... is a soft and bluesy song."L.A. Woman", the title track, attention prog lovers!, this song is purely progressive, one of the best songs they ever created, great time and tempo changes, a magnific guitar, and an explendid keyboard sound, i also think that maybe here the 4 members showed their best qualities as musicians."L`America" is a dark and atmospheric, also psychedelic song, again the bass lines are notables, and it`s probably one of the most "obscure" songs in their discography."Hyacinth House" is one of my favorite songs here, a short song with mid tempo, acoustic guitars and a delicate but beatufil Jim`s voice."Crawling King Snake" returns to their main influences and bluesy sound, the guitar riffs are pretty good here."The Wasp" is honestly my favorite song of this album, i have loved it since i was a child(i`ll tell you about Texas Radio and the Big Beat), the whole song is awesome, vocals, drums, keys and above all the guitar riffs are excellent, this song is adorable, everyone could love it."Riders on the Storm" , attention prog lovers again, im pretty sure that you already knwo this song because it is a hit, but this time besides being a hit is also a magnific song, with a jazzy texture, the sound of the rain during the song is beautiful, the piano work by Manzarek even better, and yes... this was the last song of The Doors as a quartet in an album.This was a tremendous "comeback", as i said when i review their first two albums, this is a must having to any rock lover, being or not a fan of the band, at least try it, and then you can say whatever you want.For me it would have 4.5 stars in a rock site which i would round to 5, but here, i will give it 4 stars!Highly recommended to any prog lover! social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Friday, January 12, 2007 Review this album Report (Review #107204)
We have only reached 1971, when prog was really getting into its stride, and yet the doors are already closing on one of the bands who helped to lay its foundations. "LA woman" was to be the band's last album with their leader Jim Morrison, who pressed the self-destruct button one too many times in Paris that year.Despite the adverse circumstances surrounding its recording, "LA woman" turns out to be a highly accomplished album. We have the usual collection of sophisticated pop based material ("Love he madly" and "Changeling") and blues ("Been down so long" back to back with "Cars hiss by my window" and later John Lee Hooker's "Crawling king snake"). On tracks such as "Been down so long", the damage Morrison was doing to himself shows through in his much rougher sounding voice. The irony is though, he sounds really good. "L'America" takes us back to the atmosphere which prevailed on previous albums, the psychedelic overtones sounding somewhat out of place here.For me, "Hyacinth house" is the weak track of the album. From a compositional point of view it is poor, and the half hearted performance and production do nothing to improve upon it. Worthy of mention is "The wasp" which finds Morrison reciting his poetry while sounding rather like a preacher at a salvation show.From a prog perspective the interest really lies in a couple of songs. The title track is an 8 minute piece which sets off as a rock and roll song. The pace varies as the song progresses, developing through instrumental breaks and Morrison's exciting vocal. What we were perhaps totally unprepared for though was "Riders on the storm". If ever a band signed off on a high, it was The Doors. The song is a masterpiece of understated melancholy, with an atmosphere which paints a thousand pictures (yes in this case it is words which paint a thousand pictures!). The deceptively laid back, almost lounge like, mood of the piece disguises a quite stunning combination of melody and lyric. "LA woman" is an album which defies the odds, and provides a fitting coda to the Morrison era. The masterstroke is undoubtedly to sign off with what is surely the best song they ever recorded. social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Thursday, July 12, 2007 Review this album Report (Review #128229) 041b061a72